Utah Wins 2015 PAC-8 Championship

The Utah Utes have won the 2015 PAC-8 Championship in Lake Tahoe this last weekend.

The Utes battled Washington and Oregon on their way to their second championship in club history and second in the last three years.

The Utes took on the Oregon Ducks – who beat Cal and USC in the tournament – in the championship game on Sunday, which was a rematch of the 2013 championship game where Utah beat Oregon 4-2.

This year’s championship games started out even until Utah found the back of the net halfway through the first period to give Utah a 1-0 lead. The Utes would add another goal before the period ended and led 2-0 after twenty minutes of play.

After an even second period that so no goals for either side, the penalty bug bit hard in the third for both teams as the period was littered with penalties on both sides. In a period that saw very little even strength hockey, Utah put two more behind the Ducks’ net before tempers reached a boiling point as Caden Ottley and Michael Luke squared off and were ejected for fighting immediately after Utah’s goal that made it 4-0 Utah.

After Oregon’s Alex Sulitzer scored a shorthanded goal after the fight, the Utes added one last goal late in the game as the Utes skated to a 5-1 win and their second PAC-8 Championship.

The Utes now have two PAC-8 Championships in their four years as members of the conference. The Utes are now tied for third in the conference for all time conference championships, trailing only Oregon with three and USC with eight.